A Howard Circuit jury today is expected to decide whether a state prisoner shot to death a correctional officer as part of planned escape ? a determination which could make him eligible for the death penalty.
“We?re talking about the difference between a capital case and a regular old murder case,” said Arcangelo Tuminelli, who is representing Brandon Morris, 22, of Baltimore City.
Closing arguments were given Thursday before retired Anne Arundel Judge Joseph Manck in Howard Circuit Court. Morris faces three separate murder charges.
Tuminelli said Morris shot correctional Officer Jeffery Wroten, who was guarding him Jan. 26, 2006, at Washington County Hospital, but it was not part of a plan.
But prosecutors said Morris, an inmate at Roxbury Correctional Institution in Hagerstown, stabbed himself with a sewing needle to get to the hospital and escape. Morris also in separate incidents swallowed a razor blade and stabbed himself in the leg, which prosecutors said “established a pattern.”
Washington County Deputy State?s Attorney Joseph Michael said Morris, a “slight” man, could not have wrestled to the ground Wroten, who weighed about 430 pounds, without a plan.
Michael said Morris did not request pain medication after 3 p.m. Jan. 25, so he would be alert, and he asked to use the restroom several times.
Morris also planned to take a civilian hostage, because she would have car keys and money, Michael said.
Nurse Rachel Yeagy?s testimony about Morris holding a gun to Wroten?s head was compelling, he said.
“What better evidence of the intent to kill than the statement, ?I?m going to kill you??” Michael asked.
Tuminelli said Michael was making “frivolous speculation.”
But he said Wroten was startled and reached for his gun when Morris, a Muslim, sat up in bed to pray.
He said the confrontation could have lead to a struggle in which the gun went off. Such an incident would only be second-degree murder.
Tuminelli called Yeagy ” a classic example of witnesses under extreme stress … who fills in the blanks.”
